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I just installed WinXP and everything is messed up. When I went to format my C: drive and the system file is still in NFTS format. I need to know how to convert NFTS back to original FAT32 for me to be able to re-install Win98SE. Please help me out because my whole system is down. Thank you.

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You either need to load WinXP on a second hard drive jumpered as the IDE 0 Primary Master, jumper the messed up drive as a Slave, download and install a third-party partitioning program (such as <A HREF="http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/" target="_new">Partition Magic</A>), and then make the file system conversion back to FAT32 ... or you'll need a disk utility from the drive manufacturer to zero out the drive with a low level format before recreating the partition(s) on the drive ... or you'll need <A HREF="http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/ntfsdospro.shtml" target="_new">NTFSDOS Professional Edition</A>, which will give you read/write access, but this method also has certain limitations, so look over the instructions carefully. For instance, you still won't be able to load Win98 onto the NTFS partition with this utility, regardless.

Out of the three ... the only one that is free is the disk utility. And it's likely to be the easiest solution, too.

Splendid

Toey. I have used Partition Magic 7.0 on a primary partition to convert back to Fat32. The process lost no
files or burps in the process. This was on a Win 2000 machine.
All I can say is that it worked for me.

<b><font color=green> I took an I.Q. test today...It came back negative.</font color=green></b> :lol:

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I hadn't ran the conversion process, personally. I haven't had this particular request in a long time. Most people who move to NTFS stick with it. But I got the information right off the PowerQuest website, not long ago ... and that's <i>why</i> I hadn't attempted it.

Somebody needs to update the FAQs page for their product, hmm? Or perhaps this was WinXP-specific. I'll have to go back and look again.

Question: What utility did you use to create and format your partitions? I'm also under the impression (and this from Microsoft) that partitions formatted with anything other than the Win2K/XP installation CDs cannot be converted successfully from FAT32 to NTFS.

That might be true, unless Partition Magic is involved. But I don't often have time to experiment, and sometimes it is necessary to take a few things at face value in the interests of getting the job done.

Splendid

Best info I can give of the product:
Partition Magic 7.0 is geared more toward Win2k and XP. It uses the formating tools of the OS
for the conversion process of one file system to another.

Another tidbit:
They advise that it will only work on a HDD upto 80gig meaning they have only tested it
upto a maximum of 80. But I and others have used it with no problems on more. My HDD is
120gig and it works fine. They wanted a disclaimer I suppose.

<b><font color=green> I took an I.Q. test today...It came back negative.</font color=green></b> :lol: